Bývalá Záložna / Former Credit Union building - Mnichovo Hradište (Central Bohemia)
N 50° 31.394 E 014° 58.453
33U E 498172 N 5596808
Depicted highly decorated Art-Nouveau building of former Credit Union (Záložna), which nowadays houses Czech Post Office, is the most valuable monument of the 20th century architecture in Mnichovo Hradište.
Waymark Code: WMV6YR
Location: Středočeský kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 03/06/2017
Views: 21
Depicted highly decorated Art-Nouveau building of former Credit Union (Záložna), which nowadays houses Czech Post Office, is the most valuable monument of the 20th century architecture in Mnichovo Hradište.
The building' front facade with six vertical axes is highly vertically and horizontally segmented. The ground floor is separated from the upper floors by a high flat band cornice. In outer axes are broad semicircular vaulted openings, of which the left is the main entrance (right axis window has the same form for the symmetrical composition of the facade). Entrance is formed by a valuable Art-Nouveau iron door with wrought-iron ornamental lattice panels in its upper half. In four central axes are tall rectangular windows and at the plinth line rectangular small basement windows. On the pillars between the 1st and 2nd axis and between 5th and 6th axes are half-height multifigural allegoric reliefs by prominent Czech sculptor Ladislav Šaloun. In the upper two floors are in the side axes recessed rectangular loggia with wrought iron railings. Four central axes with large rectangular windows are on both floors connected by narrow pillars.
Surface of the facade between of the 1st and 2nd floor windows is decorated by four large circular reliefs symbolising of the Peasantry, Commerce, Industry and Crafts. Facade is terminated significantly lined cornice supported by small consoles. Above the cornice, in the width of four central axes, protrudes low attic mezzanine atoped by wide triangular gable decorated by Mnichovo Hradište CoA in the middle of the tympanum. At the corners of the main cornice are statues by Ladislav Šaloun, apparently of artificial stone - left is sitting man with a hammer (allegory of Industry), the right is sittingwoman with ears (allegory of Agriculture). Both sides of the building are completed by blind triangular gables. The building is roofed by a complex roof in the shape of a quadrangular truncated pyramid with a low prism extension at the top.